Poverty

1
Poverty Society

• Rank Chapter 6 Will Not Discuss
• Pretty straightforwardwill integrate where
  appropriate
• Have not finished grading these RQ
• Reflection Return and Exam
• Cant give backcome up for grade
• Will go over the whole exam when all have taken
  it
• Fundraising/Campus Visit
• William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears
• The Great Migration
• Deindustrialization
• Suburbanization of Work
• Social Organization

2
Exam 1

• Median Score was between an A-/B
• A 5
• A- 2
• B 0
• B 2
• B- 1
• C 1
• C 1
• C- 0
• D 1
• D 1
• F 3

• What to say
• Most of you did very wella few are struggling
• Exam was worth 20 of your grade
• 40 of your grade is determined by the questions
• If youre not doing them, or not taking them
  seriouslyyoure making a mistake

3
Fundraising and a Trip to Campus

• For each task you volunteer for and complete,
  Ill give ¼ point on your assignment grade
• A moderator to facilitate discussion
• Fundraising Ideas
• Things to gets Crayons/markers, puzzles,
  backpacks, supplies, jump ropes
• Ways to get them Back pack drive (Gerald),
  donation boxes, bake sale (Lisa), candy sale
  (Selena) Spare change dorm storming
• Outreach SGA (Bernard) ROTC (John)
• Trip to Campus
• Spring Carnival (Snow) Field trip, Basketball
  game movie

4
Rank Understanding Poverty

• Structural forces ensure that there will be
  losers in the first place (unemployment, bad
  jobs, weak safety net)individual characteristics
  help explain who loses

5
Concentrated Poverty

• A question for people living and working in
  Chester, Why do places like Chester (Philly,
  Camden, Cleveland, Chicago, etc.)
  generate/possess so many losers of the economic
  game?
• Big questionwith a complicated
  answerConcentrated Poverty results from several
  factors, including past government policies,
  racial and ethnic discrimination, residential
  segregation, economic changes and employment
  dislocations, the movement of prosperous
  residents to the suburbs, and finally other, less
  definable social and cultural forces. (Iceland,
  p.57)
• There is a lot in that sentence
• I want to unpack it and teach you about it

6
William Julius Wilson

• Major Scholar in area of urban poverty
• The Declining Significance of Race
• The Truly Disadvantaged
• When Work Disappears
• More than Just Race Being Black and Poor in the
  Inner City (2008)

7
Understanding Urban Black Poverty

• 1890, approximately 4 million Blacks in America
  90 in Southanyone know anything about what
  theyre doing? How this map changes?

8
Integration of Blacks into US Economy

• Approximately 4 Million Landless Freed Blacks
• Land still controlled by White
• Despite promises of 40 acres and a mule
• 1880 GA
• Blacks were 40 of population
• Blacks owned 1.6 of the land
• Plantation Owners Still Require Labor?
• Blacks need access to make a living?
• How might these needs be met?

9
Sharecropping?

• Blacks rented a plot of land and paid the
  plantation owner a certain proportion of the
  cotton crop
• Plantation owners advance seed, mule, tools,
  credit
• Blacks repaid these debts with a share of their
  cotton production
• Share the crop

10
Sharecropping

• Soas European Americans (Irish, Italians, Jews,
  Russians, Poles, etc) are entering the industrial
  economy and beginning the inter-generational
  journey from poverty to middle class
• Blacks are bound to the land as virtual slaves
• Debt Peonage
• insolvent blacks, unable to repay debt from one
  year to another, were required by law to work
  indefinitely for the plantation owner to pay off
  debt

11
1890, Blacks in America
12
Then Things ChangesThe Great Migration North
Why the jump in the teens 20s?
13
The Great Migration

• aaa

14
The Great Migration North Why the 1940s jump?
15
The Great Migration PA

• 1930 70 of Pennsylvanias Black Population was
  born somewhere else
• 19 Virginia
• 13 South Carolina
• 11 Georgia

16
Philly The Great Migration
 
 
17
Great MigrationBlacks Become an Urban Population
US North
Rural Urban Rural Urban
1890 80 20 38 62
1920 66 34 16 84
1950 38 62 7 93
1970 19 81 3 97
18
Poverty Society

• Fundraising/Campus Visit
• William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears
• The Great Migration
• Deindustrialization
• Suburbanization of Work
• Social Organization

19
Fundraising and a Trip to Campus

• For each task you volunteer for and complete,
  Ill give ¼ point on your assignment grade
• Fundraising new information or loose ends
• Trip to Campus
• Spring Carnival (Snow)the date?

20
Great MigrationBlacks Become an Urban Population
US North
Rural Urban Rural Urban
1890 80 20 38 62
1920 66 34 16 84
1950 38 62 7 93
1970 19 81 3 97
21
The Urban Ghetto

• Wilson refers to Institutional ghettoes that
  are segregatedbut day to day activities more or
  less mirror larger society
• Note Video from the Promised Land
• 2) At the beginning of the video, the Black
  Ghetto in Chicago is described as the Capitol of
  Black America. Briefly describe the world that
  is depicted?

22
Great Migration and American CultureA digression

• Soundtrack of video full of Blues
• Black acoustic music migrates up Mississippi with
  Migration
• Mississippi Delta Blues
• Travel on Highway 61Famous Dylan album
• Early Rolling Stones album had many credited
  blues covers
• Early Led Zeppelin albums had many non credited
  blues covers
• Willie Dixon sued Led Zeppelin because Whole
  lotta love was so similar to You need
  love.settled out of court

23
The Great Migration North The main pull factor?

• Early this semester we noted In a capitalist
  society, a persons well being/standard of living
  will primarily be determined by their
  participation in the labor market.
• So why do I bother to review the Great Migration?
  How do you think it impacted the rate of black
  poverty?

24
The Great MigrationBlacks Enter Urban Labor
Markets

• By 1940, the occupational distribution of
  transformed
• Similar to the peasants who had left Italy or
  Poland in 1900 to become wage workers in America,
  Blacks left the land in the south become modern
  wage workers

25
Occupational Changes Reduce Poverty

• Increased Occupational

26
The Great MigrationBlacks join the industrial
working class

• By 1940, the occupational distribution of
  transformed
• Blacks had joined the industrial working class
• Four things to consider
• 1) Blacks get manufacturing jobs a generation
  after other groups intergenerational mobility
  delayed

27
The Great MigrationBlacks join the industrial
working class

• By 1940, the occupational distribution of
  transformed
• Blacks had joined the industrial working class
• Four things to consider
• 1) Blacks get manufacturing jobs a generation
  after other groups intergenerational mobility
  delayed
• 2) Blacks get manufacturing jobs, but as 2nd
  class workers (lowest skilled, lowest paid)
  intragenerational mobility institutionally
  limited

28
The Great MigrationBlacks join the industrial
working class

• By 1940, the occupational distribution of
  transformed
• Blacks had joined the industrial working class
• Four things to consider
• 1) Blacks get manufacturing jobs a generation
  after other groups intergenerational mobility
  delayed
• 2) Blacks get manufacturing jobs, but as 2nd
  class workers (lowest skilled, lowest paid)
  intra generational mobility institutionally
  limited
• 3) They will not get access to the better jobs
  until the Civil Rights Act of 1965
• intra and inter generational mobility impacted
• My Dad has already been working for years in a
  job that openly discriminated

29
The Great MigrationBlacks join the industrial
working class

• By 1940, the occupational distribution of
  transformed
• Blacks had joined the industrial working class
• Four things to consider
• 1) Blacks get manufacturing jobs a generation
  after other groupsintergenerational mobility
  delayed
• 2) Blacks get manufacturing jobs, but as 2nd
  class workers (lowest skilled, lowest
  paid)mobility institutionally limited
• 3) They will not get access to the better jobs
  until the Civil Rights Act of 1965 intra and
  inter generational mobility impacted
• 4) What happens to Americas manufacturing jobs
  starting in the 1970s?
• Wilsons focus

30
Occupational Changes Reduce Povertybut then
work disappears
31
Great Migration into Northern Ghettoes

• Institutional ghettoes are segregatedbut day to
  day activities more or less mirror larger society
• You could walk out of the house and get a job.
  Maybe not what you want but a you could get a
  job. Now you cant find anything. A lot of people
  in this neighborhood, they want to work but they
  cant get work (Wilson 1996 36).

32
From Institutional Ghetto to Jobless Ghetto

• Economic Restructuring Hits Urban Black
  Communities Very Hard
• As late as 1968-1970 period, more than 70 of
  Blacks working metropolitan areas held blue
  collar jobs at the same time that 50 percent of
  all metropolitan workers held white collar jobs
  (Wilson 1996 31).
• More than ½ of these workers were in goods
  producing industries
• Common saying When America gets a cold, Black
  America gets pneumonia.

33
De-industrializationJobless Ghettoes

• The manufacturing losses in some northern
  cities have been staggering(Wilson 1996 29)
• North Lawndale Neighborhood in Chicago loses
  57,000 manufacturing jobs
• Manufacturing Jobs Lost Between 1967-1987
• Pct. Change Total Lost
• Philadelphia 64 160,000
• Chicago 60 500,000
• New York 58 gt500,000
• Detroit 51 108,000
• Note video clip on Chester on Blacks in the
  Steel Industry

34
Economic RestructuringJobless Ghettoes
35
Occupational Shift within urban black community

• Chicago
• 57 percent of Chicagos employed inner city
  black fatherswho were born between 1950 and 1955
  worked in manufacturing and construction
  industries in 1974(Wilson 1996 30)
• By 1987 this was down to 31 percent
• As a result, young black males have turned
  increasingly to the low wage service sector and
  unskilled laboring jobs for employment, or have
  gone jobless(Wilson 1996 30)
• Philadelphia's Richard Allen Housing Project
• 1945 54 of household breadwinners in
  manufacturing
• 1960s 25 of household breadwinners in
  manufacturing
• By the 1960s, more than 60 of breadwinners were
  working as maids in department stores, laundry
  workers, orderlies and other service trades

36
What of the remaining urban jobs
37
What of the remaining urban jobs

• Consider ChesterLargest Employers are Widener
  and Crozier Medical
• What kinds of occupations do these institutions
  offer?
• What are the human capital requirements for these
  occupations?
• Where do you think that most graduates of
  Chesters school system will plug in?

38
Sociologists Refer to this as the Skills
Mismatch

• Skills mismatch Urban Poverty
• mismatch between the skills of many urban
  residents and the skills required by higher wage
  parts of the new urban economy
• Wilson, p. 32
• NYC lost 135,000 jobs requiring less than 12
  years education while gaining 300,000 in
  industries requiring 13 years or more
• Philly lost 55,000 in low education industries
  and gained 40,000 requiring HS plus some college

39
William Julius Wilson

• Not just a skills mismatchWilson argues that
  there is a growing mismatch between urban blacks
  and the suburban location of employment. In your
  own words, explain this problem. Be sure to a
  quote or statistic from the text to support your
  explanation.
• Wilson argues that there is a growing mismatch
  between urban blacks and the suburban location of
  employment. In your own words, explain this
  problem. Be sure to incorporate a quote or
  statistic from the text to support your
  explanation.
• In your own words, briefly describe what the
  article 4-Hour Trek Across New York for 4 Hours
  of Work, and 28 was about.

40
Urban population faced with suburban job growth

• Spatial Mismatch
• The demand for labor has shifted away from
  neighborhoods where blacks are concentrated in
  favor of suburban areas
• Chicago as an Example
• 1970-1990, 60 of new jobs in Chicago area were
  created in the Northern Suburbs
• Blacks are less than 2 of that populationyou
  should be wondering why?
• By 1990, Chicago Accounted for just 37 of the
  jobs in metro-region

41
Another problemSuburbanization of Employment

• Donut Shaped DevelopmentShare of Jobs within 3,
  10, gt 10 mile Radius of central city, 1996

42
Another problemSuburbanization of Employment

• Share of Metropolitan Employment, 1999

43
Spatial Mismatch Transit

• You read about a woman who commutes more than 2
  hrs each way from Philly to the Suburbs for a
  7.25 job
• Reverse CommuteCity to suburb commute is often
  tough
• In some cases, not even possible
• Presence in suburbs can bring problems racial
  harassment

44
Gautreaux Program

• 5. Briefly describe the Gautreaux program. Why
  was it initiated? What did it do? What did the
  research generated from this program find?
• Poverty due to a culture of poverty or
  structural factors like lack of jobsThis program
  provides a nice test
• Anyone remember what it was?

45
Gautreaux Program

• Court ordered relocation of 4,000 people from
  Chicago Public Housing to other areas of Greater
  Chicago
• Provided a Natural Experiment Two groups to
  compare
• Researchers could contrast systematically the
  experiences of low income blacks who had been
  assigned private apartments in the suburbs with
  the experience of a control group with similar
  characteristics and histories who had been
  assigned private apartments in the city (Wilson
  1996 38)

46
A Simple Experiment

• Poor Urban Blacks ?Moved to Suburbs? Measure
  Employment Status
• Poor Urban Black? Stay in city ? Measure
  Employment Status
• The only thing that differed was the location
• Culture was the same level of human, social and
  cultural capital is initially the same
• What did they find?

47
Study Findings

• After taking into account the personal
  characteristics of the respondents (family
  background, family circumstances, levels of human
  capital, motivation, length of time since the
  respondent first enrolled in the Gautreaux
  program)found that those who moved to apartments
  in the suburbs were significantly more likely to
  have a job after the move than those placed in
  the city(Wison 1996 38)
• When asked whyrespondents said there were more
  jobs.
• Findings support spatial mismatch theoryyet
  another challenge to the idea that poverty is
  primarily about culture
• Raises interesting questions about housing policy

48
Joblessness Snowballs into other problems in the
Ghetto

• Changes in the industrial and occupational mix,
  including the removal of jobs from urban centers
  to suburban corridors, represents external
  factors that helped elevate joblessness among
  inner city blacks. But important social and
  demographic changes within the inner city are
  also associated with the escalating rates of
  neighborhood joblessness (Wilson 1996 42).

49
Joblessness creates other problems

• Wilson notes that after 1960, certain types of
  African Americans began to leave inner cities.
  Please describe who left the cities. Why do you
  think the departure of these people would have a
  negative effect on a community?

50
ExodusMovement of the People

• Woodlawn on the South Side of Chicago
• White Flight From 66 percent white in 1950 to 10
  percent white in 1960
• After 1960, as sizable exodus of black residents
  followed, including a significant number of
  working- and middle class families (Wilson 1996
  6).
• outmigration of non-poor black families(Wilson
  1996 42)
• Population falls from 80,000 in 1960 to 24,473 in
  1990
• How would the movement of working and middle
  class families transform a neighborhood?

51
Middle Class Exodus

• Loss of Black middle class impacts on social
  capital
• Job networks erode
• Reduces role models who stress importance of
  school, career aspirations, etc.
• Teachers and social workers move outdrug dealers
  move in

52
Middle Class ExodusSmall Business Decline
Neighborhoods Crumble

• Woodlawn on the South Side of Chicago
• Business base erode from over 800 establishments
  in 1950 to about a hundred today (Wilson 1996 5)
• Neighborhoods disintegrate
• Excess housing stock leads land lords to abandon
  houses
• Tax base erodes leading to cuts in services
• Garbage collection Park maintenance Schools

53
Joblessness Middle Class Exodus Results in Lack
of Social Organization

• Joblessness
• Decrease in income
• Change in structure and rhythm of everyday life
• Impact on commercial businesses in neighborhood
• Working and Middle Class Flight
• Further erosion of commercial sector
• Erosion of social capital (job networks)
• Lack of role models
• Population decline leads to abandoned housing
• All Contributes to weakening of Social
  Organization/Social Capital...and weakened Social
  Organization/Social Capital further feeds
  disintegration of neighborhood

54
Now

• Fundraising and plans
• NextSegregation and opportunity